NCJ Number
163622
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 11 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1996) Pages: 113-132
Date Published
1996
Length
20 pages
Annotation
A total of 140 men referred for wife assault and 45 demographically matched controls were assessed for psychological variables associated with abusive personality (anger, cyclical (borderline) personality organization, and chronic experience of trauma symptoms) and abusive behaviors (both physical and emotional) as reported by their female partners.
Abstract
Predictor variables for these abuse measures included the Egna Minnen Betraffande Uppfostran (EMBU), which assesses recollections of parental warmth and rejection, and the Conflict Tactics Scale, which assesses physical abuse in the family of origin. A composite of borderline personality organization, anger, trauma symptoms, and fearful attachment called Abusive Personality (ABP) correlated .42 with wives report of emotionally abusive behaviors. ABP was positively and significantly correlated with recollections of negative parental treatment by the abuse perpetrator. A composite of parental rejection and verbal and physical abuse by parents correlated .41 with ABP. A discriminant function of high and low ABP found that ABP was predicted by paternal rejection, physical abuse, and absence of maternal warmth. Physical abuse by either parent correlated significantly with all subscales and total scores on the ABP measure. When combined with data that showed ABP to correlate significantly with frequency of use of violence by wife assaulters (Dutton, 1995b, Dutton and Starzomski, 1993), the current study suggests a personality syndrome of assaultive males that has antecedents in the early experiences of these men. The data suggest that family-of-origin experiences may have effects beyond the modeling of abusive behaviors. These effects include the development of a specific personality form associated with abusiveness. 7 tables, 2 figures, and 45 references